The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra & You’re doing okay 👍🏽

So a few of you have started asking me which yoga books or older yoga texts to read and in what order. Like the Yoga Sutras for example 😑. And which one of these will help me understand yoga better. Essentially, to give me the answers that I am after.

But it doesn’t really work like that 🫣. Allow me to explain.

There’s a text I talk about A LOT. The Vijnana Bhairava Tantra. It’s old, and it’s my go-to text from the entire tradition. And the reason I love it is the way it opens.

It begins with a question. Devi (Parvati) turns to Shiva and asks him, in effect, what are YOU really? What is the essence of all this? The deepest, biggest question there is to ask, asked of the one being who could actually answer it.

And Shiva doesn’t really answer the question 🧐. He doesn’t explain what reality is, what life is, or what the nature of being is. Instead, he encourages her for find and feel all of this for herself.

He doesn’t give Devi the answers, because the answers we are given often change nothing about who we are. Only the answers we arrive at organically have the potential to transform who we are.

And I often think about that with parenting. Because when I read these texts, I try to relate them to my own life, as a way of understanding them. And this one makes me think of being a dad.

In the early days I was looking for all the answers. I just wanted to be a really good dad. That’s all I ever wanted, as most of you know. I wanted to get it right, because my biggest fear is getting it wrong. So in a roundabout way, I was reading the books on parenting and the psychology of children, because I wanted someone to tell me what to do. I wanted someone to give me all the answers. The same way Devi wants Shiva to make her life easy and hand her the answer.

But Shiva doesn’t do that. He trusts Devi. He trusts that she will continue on the path and find her own 'truth'. And that’s exactly what I was missing. It took me a long time to understand that the pressure itself was the burden. That the pressure of trying to be too good a dad was the very thing stopping me from getting it right.

So now I just try to be there. No pressure to be good at it. I just am, as best I can. Because I’m not building a little human ❌. I just need to create the right conditions for him to grow. I always think of what Osho said, that if you love a rose, you don’t pick the petals away or snap it from its stem to show others. You just allow it grow.

The developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik also argues (successfully) that there are two kinds of parents: the carpenter, who tries to build a child to a plan, and the gardener, who creates the conditions for a child to grow in their own way.

So what is my point? What do I want you to take from all this?

Read these older yoga texts for insight. Read them almost for fun, for the love of it. But don’t read them as something you have to live up to. You don’t need to intellectually understand what surrender means, or what non-attachment means, or any of the yogic words that get thrown around in a yoga class. You just need to hold them as concepts, and trust that life will teach you what they actually mean, far better than any book can. Your own struggles in life will teach you more about yoga than any book ever will.

I know I say this a lot. But trust the physical practice. The practice will become its own philosophy, and all of this will make sense to you over time, as long as you trust the process and trust that you’re doing okay.

It’s the same thing I tell myself when I look at Zaccy. I think, "you know what, bru? You’re doing all right". You don’t need to live up to anyone else’s expectations. And you, as a yoga student, don’t need to live up to the expectations of these ancient texts either.

Trust me. You’re doing okay.

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Namaskar - Eternal Seeker

Zahir Akram

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References 1. Goutham S, Bhargav H, Holla B, Mahadevan J, Nagendra RP, Jasti N, Narasimha VL, Mehta UM, Varambally S, Venkatasubramanian G, Chand P, Gangadhar BN, Hill KP, Keshavan M, Murthy P. Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online 7 January 2026. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2843424 Free full text (PubMed Central): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12780978/ (Study design, 59 participants, 30 yoga and 29 control, ten 45-minute sessions over 14 days, median recovery of 5 vs 9 days, improvements in heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep and pain.) 2. Powell A. Yoga can help cut severe, initial opioid-withdrawal period in half, study finds. Harvard Gazette, 24 February 2026. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/yoga-can-help-cut-severe-initial-opioid-withdrawal-period-in-half-study-finds/ (Group sessions, the specific practices used, and comments from the Harvard researchers.) 3. Yoga accelerates opioid withdrawal recovery. Healio, 23 January 2026. https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20260123/yoga-accelerates-opioid-withdrawal-recovery (Parasympathetic activity accounting for 23% of the effect.) 4. Jha S. Drug withdrawal takes 9 days, yoga brings it down to 5: NIMHANS study. The South First, 16 February 2026. https://thesouthfirst.com/health/drug-withdrawal-takes-9-days-yoga-brings-it-down-to-5-nimhans-study/ (Stress markers rising briefly during breathing practice, then improving at rest by day 15.) 5. Gratzer D. Reading of the Week: Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal? The New JAMA Psych Paper. 29 January 2026. https://davidgratzer.com/reading-of-the-week/reading-of-the-week-yoga-for-opioid-withdrawal-the-new-jama-psych-paper-also-maois-history-and-ai-associated-psychosis/ (Average age of 25.6, and the study's limitations: small sample and no active control group.)